Ten Thousand Failings of Haruno Sakura
by Admiral Saris
Summary: An alternate timeline where Sakura is not accepted by Tsunade as an apprentice. This story covers her many, many failures, debacles, screw ups, and misfortunes over the following years. Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any character or setting created by anyone else contained in this tale.
1. 01 Prologue

"_Remember that failure is an event, not a person."- common saying_

"_Bullshit, I call Haruno Sakura!"- Naruto fans reply._

**Ten Thousand Failings: Prologue **

Tsunade hadn't changed much about the Hokage's office since she'd taken the position. The desk was the same, the artwork unchanged, even the shelfs seemed to hold the exact same scrolls and books. Sakura hadn't been in the office nearly as much as Naruto but every Academy Student spent some time visiting the third hokage in his office…which now that she was older actually made her wonder a bit about the old man.

_"Don't worry about it. It's not like he diddled us or anything." _Inner Sakura said. As usual Sakura ignored the voice, a habit she'd practiced since she'd discovered other children didn't have voices that talked to them. It had gotten to the point where the voice barely spoke at all. Then during the exams after it defeated Ino's ninjitsu it had started talking again with a vengeance.

"I was surprised when you applied to become my apprentice." Tsunade said. The fifth cut a far more intimidating form than the grandfatherly third. From the scowl on the woman's face she cared far less about children than the old man. Or at least she didn't care about Sakura at all.

_"Blink already Lady!" _her inner voice shouted. Sakura forced herself not to look away from the world's strongest Kunoichi and settled for a nod.

"I looked at your record," the Kage continued, finally breaking the awkward staring contest and looking into a file on her desk. "It's very impressive. Second in your year at the Academy, not to mention the top student in the kunoichi arts, one completed A-rank Mission. During the invasion you were part of the team that defeated Suna's jinchūriki. You even managed to survive an encounter with an S-rank missing-nin. A record anyone could be proud of."

_"Hell yeah!"_ Inner Sakura shouted with a fist pump.

"A little too impressive actually," Tsunade said still staring down at her report. "So I asked Kakashi and Naruto to go over all of the events with me. It was… enlightening."

_"…yeah, we're screwed."_ Inner Sakura muttered darkly.

"The A-Rank Mission to wave country had three encounters with enemy ninja. Uchiha Sasuke defeated two chunin rank missing-nins in the first, assisted with Zabuza, in the second encounter, and was nearly killed fighting Zabuza's Apprentice in the third. Uzumaki Naruto was injured fighting in the first, fought Zabuza in the second, and defeated Zabuza's apprentice in the third. You were uninvolved in any of the combat. During the chunin exams when you encountered Orochimaru, Sasuke was nearly killed and given the cursed seal, Naruto was rendered unconscious, and you emerged without a scratch. During the encounter with Gaara of the Desert, you were reduced to being a hostage. Perhaps the most damning thing was a report from Nara Shikamaru. When he raised an emergency team of all the genin he could find he deliberately chose not to take you even though you were at the gate when his team departed. When I asked him about it, he said it would have been more troublesome to take you." Tsunade's voice was flat as she finished. "Needless to say, I won't be taking you as an apprentice."

"I understand Hokage-sama" Sakura said, feeling the familiar, crushing weight of her uselessness settle back on her shoulders. Tsunade's attention finally rose from her reports to look at Sakura. It's amazing how expressive her eyes are Sakura thought, seeing nothing but kindness in the gaze of the older woman.

"Since the invasion," Tsunade continued, "our manpower situation has become a little hectic. The truth is I need every ninja I can get in the field far more than I need an apprentice. My advisors and I are still arguing about how we're going to shuffle everyone around to meet the issue. For now just report to the mission assignment office everyday to see if we have orders for you."

"Ah, thank you for seeing me Hokage-sama. I'll do my best" Sakura said as she bowed and left the office.

_"Who needs her anyway? We'll figure something ought. Besides who ever heard of a badass medic? It's better that she didn't take us on!"_

_To be continued..._

_Coming Soon: Life without a team_


	2. Chapter 02 Life without a Team

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Or Sakura, or any character, item, place, or concept brought in from Naruto or other places.

"_Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck." _

Chapter 1: Life Without a Team

"Did we have to eat Ramen? Naruto's not even here." Sakura said as she sat with her off and on again friend Ino at Ichiruka's ramen stand.

"I had a craving." Ino said with a shrug. "Speaking of Naruto I haven't seen him in a while. Has he started his training trip already?"

"No, I ran in to him earlier. He's been running missions out of the village with… well everyone but me really. I'm actually kind of surprised you haven't had a mission with him yet." Team 7's least talented member said as she twirled her noodles about. Ino raised an eyebrow as she watched her depressed friend.

"So if Naruto's…busy where's Kakashi-sensei?" The blond asked. Sakura shrugged.

"Nobody seems to know. He's probably off running solo missions, or doing elite Jonin things. I haven't seen him since he brought Naruto back after Sasuke-kun… after he brought back Naruto." Sakura finished.

Ino frowned as she looked at her friend. Sakura had given up even playing with her food and was shrinking in on herself rapidly. Honestly it was the worst shape Ino had seen her in since she'd befriended the girl years ago. Ino wracked her brain, there had to be something, anything she could say to lift the girls spirits!

"Hey cheer up!" The loudest kunoichi of her graduating class said. "I mean look at it this way, you're running solo missions as a genin. Solo missions! Nobody does those."

Sakura turned to look at Ino her eyes wide and twitching. "Solo missions? Do you want to hear about my solo missions?"

_Monday-_

"Genin Sakura, here to report for a mission!" Sakura said standing at attention at the mission assignment desk. The chunin manning the desk looked up at her.

"Where's your team?"

"…well… I'm kind of on my own…"

"I see." He said. Looking at the papers piled on his desk.

"Let's see… dishwashing, fence painting, dog walking, babysitting, grocery acquisition… so many options. No wait! Hokage forgive me how did I not notice this mission earlier!" He leapt to his feet, in his shaking hands he grasped a paper that he silently read with wide eyes. Everyone in the room turned to stare at the chunin's outburst. Sakura stumbled backwards. "This is a priority mission; it must be completed right away, by the first available ninja!" His eyes still wide as if he couldn't believe what he read slowly shifted down to the lone member of team7 who stood petrified before the assignment office clerk.

"Genin Sakura, the village has a priority mission that only you can complete. Do you accept?"

"uh, what is this mission" She asked, her voice hardly a whisper, her knees shaking and hands a far cry from steady.

"I cannot disclose any details of the mission until you accept. Will you take this mission genin Sakura, the village is counting on you!" Sakura stood shaking in her fake designer sandals, feeling the eyes of every ninja in the office weighing down on her. Slowly, hesitantly, her head fell in what could be taken as a nod.

"Thank the gods!" The Chunin boomed, his voice echoing across the silent office. "Genin Sakura!" He continued in a raised voice making it easily heard by every ninja on the floor. "You must go forth and rescue the lost cat of the Fire Daimyo's wife! The cat Tora was lost on her ladyships morning walk through the village and the reputation of the entire village is at stake!"

For a single moment the silence was all encompassing. Then it started with a small chuckle from behind her. Quickly giggles erupted and some fake coughs tried to cover the first few laughs. As she reached out to accept the mission scroll al attempts at dignity were gone and full blown, riot like laughter rolled through the assembled ninja. Red faced Sakura did the only thing she could. She ran like hell straight out of that office.

_Tuesday-_

"NO! It's horrible! I refuse to accept this!" The woman shouted. Sakura twitched.

"What? What's the problem?" Sakura asked.

"You wretched girl you painted my fence the wrong color!" The woman was, short, plump, and in Sakura's mind the ugliest woman she'd ever seen.

"You said paint it white. I painted it white."

"I wanted virgin white! Pristine white! Not ceramite white!"

"If you didn't like the color why did you sit on you porch and watch me paint it for the last five hours!" Sakura shouted back at the woman.

"Don't you dare raise your voice to me! I have no choice but to report you mission a failure! "

"What!" Sakura screeched. "Why the hell are you doing this?" Surprisingly the woman instantly calmed down.

"Well you're the teammate of that wretched Naruto boy and the traitor. You deserve whatever you get. I don't see why I should have to pay you."

Sakura stared at her. Inner Sakura swore violent and horrific curses at her. The woman stared blankly back. Sakura snapped.

"Look lady I spent 18 hours yesterday chasing a cat! 18 hours. I didn't even catch it! It ran into some stupid kids arms and I had to have the kid take it back to the mission assignment office with me! I am not failing a mission to paint a fence!" She leaned forward into the damnable old woman's face. "Not a chance."

"Well then you better repaint my fence. I have the color I want by the front door."

_"Hell no, we aren't taking this lying down. Kick her ass_." Inner Sakura demanded.

"Son of a bitch." Sakura swore as she went to grab the 'correct' paints. The woman laughing as the genin shuffled off.

"…_you suck. I'd have kicked her wrinkly old ass."_

_Wednesday-_

"um Anko-san, I'm really happy you chose me to help with the mission, but I'm not sure I understand exactly what we're doing…" Sakura said as she followed the infamous kunoichi across town.

"Anko's fine. I'm not big on formality kid." The bored looking woman said as she led Sakura toward the edges of the village.

"Well… what is our mission exactly Anko?"

"Were hunting Skaven."

"What? What's a Skaven?" Sakura asked.

"Nothing. They don't exist." Anko replied with a bored drawl.

"…If they don't exist why are we hunting them?" Sakura asked confused.

"Because the third, fourth, and fifth hokages thought that the first could shit gold and could do no wrong."

"What?" Sakura asked completely confused.

"Look kid. It's really stupid, and confusing, and really stupid. Like amazingly stupid. And it has to do with stuff sensei used to talk to me about. So I really don't want to get into it." Anko continued in her utterly bored voice.

Sakura weighed her options. She didn't want to piss off Anko but she really had no idea what was going on.

_"I'd ask I have no clue what she's talking about." Inner Sakura said._

"Uhhh… Anko, I'm really lost… could you explain just a little bit?"

"Fine." Anko said with a huff. She stopped right in the middle of the street, leaned down and put her face right in front of Sakura's. Right in front, inches away. "Once upon a time, way back before the village was founded, before the ninja, before the Sage of Six Paths, when the whole world was united by the Realm, one giant empire of mankind. It was ruled by the Anathema, a terrible race of whom the Sage of Six Paths was but the least, and we shinobi are but lesser cousins and pale shadows of. Mankind wasn't alone, other races and twisted things stalked the world. Lintha, Dragon Kings, Ogres, Trolls, Shaggoths, Trollocs, Darkspawn, Fae, and Demons of all kinds. One of these other races was called the Skaven. They were a twisted race of giant rats that walked upright like men. Insane and barbarous they lived in a city in a marsh somewhere called, very imaginatively, Skavenblight. They had a network of secret tunnels that criss-crossed the whole world and they constantly fought wars amongst themselves and with mankind. They built war machines of eldritch horror and terrible power, and conducted twisted experiments on each other creating all kinds of mutants. In one of his 36 legendary acts the Sage of Six Paths lead an army that destroyed Skavenblight and shattered the Skaven race. Never more would they threaten mankind and they dwindled out and died. Are you fucking happy now? Thank you for making me recall some of sensei's lectures." Anko said leaning away. Gone was her lazy and laid back attitude and bored eyes. Her eyes bore a hole in Sakura's head. Her pleasant smile replaced by a scowl that promised pain.

"But what does that have to do with us?"

"Sensei obsessed about ancient, un-provable crap like that. So did the first Hokage. It's a standing order, written in the original founding charter of Konoha, that any report of Skaven anywhere in Konoha demands immediate investigation. Every now and then a pain in the ass shows up at the office and reports a Skaven sighting for shits and giggles, or a drunk sewer worker thinks he sees a giant rat and reports it. A team is sent out and dutifully reports nothing conclusive. That's us."

"…this…seems really stupid…" Sakura said.

"Yes. Yes it is." Anko said with a nod.

"So why are we…?"

"I'm here because everybody knows sensei obsessed about this crap and spent years pounding it into my brain. You're here because it has to be a team that investigates."

"But skaven don't exist." Sakura said.

"Right. It's actually kind of funny, they even have fake evidence about a battle with Skaven in a museum…forget which one… but they have swords and banners and stuff that supposedly were taken at a battle hundreds of years ago. But no, there's no real proof of much of anything before the Sage. But no ones seen a Skaven. Ever." Anko said. Then immediately she switched to being cheerful again. "Ah, here we are. The final sewer grate in town."

"…Anko, why do we need a sewer grate?"

"For the mission. We'll split into two teams. One of us will descend into the sewers and proceed to check the every foul tunnel and passage beneath the city for giant human like rats. It'll be a hard grueling trekking through the worst filth Konoha has to offer. The other member will carefully observe above ground making sure no Skaven attack." Anko stared at Sakura. Sakura stared at Anko. Anko grinned at Sakura, each moment her smile growing brighter and brighter until it threatened to reach Naruto levels of giant grin. Sakura gaped at Anko, each moment more horror and shock crept on to her face.

"I'm not going to be the one staying up here am I." Sakura asked.

"Nope. Have fun kid."

"Son of a bitch."

**Notes:**

-Ceramite White actually is a color. And it's damn close to as white as you can get.

A series of snap shots about Sakura's daily life and what her missions are like. I hope it's worth some laughs. I also hope people noticed that I'm changing the history and some of the rules of the Naruto world. More will come on that later. I actually intend to start having these notes be used to explain some of the changes I'm making, and even to talk about the choices I make and why I made them. I'm just not sure where exactly to start explaining. If you have something you're curious about feel free to ask, and I'll try and answer it in a future note. Next chapter gets a little more serious as we move out of Sakura's crappy life (at least a bit) and focus on some of the other characters.


	3. Chapter 03 Change

Where to start? This chapter was… odd for me to write because it required a lot of background work that needs to be explained. 1st, I don't like OCs. I really don't. So rather than use them to fill this story I grabbed characters from everywhere else and filled them in. Mostly fighting games and anime. However this is a Naruto story, these characters were adapted to fit the Naruto (and bits of Exalted) world. While I tried to keep as close to their canon backgrounds the history of some characters was changed or altered to fit the Naruto world and when possible characters added to Konoha's roster where put within existing clans. Other characters experienced minor changes to the personalities (largely do to the fact that many characters are from a modern setting where killing is the great sin of martial arts, while in the Naruto world views on it tend to run from not caring at all to finding it a necessary evil)

Most characters, in my mind at least, fit into the pegs rather nicely but there is one issue I feel you should be warned about ahead of time- The Uchiha clan and the Senju. Lots of characters got dumped into the Uchiha clan and most of them conveniently died during the massacre. However the roster of living Uchiha is slightly changed.

Uchiha Itachi- age 18- S-Rank Missing-Nin, Akatsuki

Uchiha Kasumi- Age 17- A- Rank Missing Nin, whereabouts unknown (off on her quest to avenge her brother)

Ayane (unacknowledged bastard child, currently no Sharingan) - Age 15, currently serving in Anbu (desires to kill both Kasumi and Itachi, blames Kasumi for Sasuke defecting)

Uchiha Sasuke – Age 12, C-rank Missing-Nin, Oto (desires to kill Itachi)

The Senju also actually have a clan now.

Honestly it probably won't matter… most of these characters will be too awesome to actually spend much time around Sakura and will thus be relegated to the background anyway. I just felt that fair warning should be given.

Disclaimer: Borrowed characters are currently from: Ranma ½, Kenichi Histories Mightiest Disciple, Dead or Alive, Street Fighter, and probably others later. I don't own any of them.

This chapter also gives rise to character stats which are seen at the bottom and explained there. I'm not fond of the Data Entry Books so I opted for something else. Like I said, big chapter for me…

**Chapter 02: Change**

"_Victory often rests on the correct shinobi being in the correct place at the right time. Even the mightiest ninja is worthless if absent from battle."- __Senju Tobirama_

The Room of Profound Darkness was located deep in the dark, buried in the lowest depths of the Hokage Tower. Most Anbu and veteran Ninja had at least heard of the room and when they thought no one was listening gossip flew about its purpose. No one had officially acknowledged the room's existence. No one ever admitted to being inside. Hatake Kakashi, having served as a Jonin for almost 14 years was often badgered for such gossip by his Jonin colleagues and former Anbu peers. He'd never admitted having any knowledge of the room. To anyone. Ever. Not his self proclaimed Eternal Rival. Not his students. Not a determined and half naked Kurenai. Not even his half sister on the warpath. No one. He wasn't alone in his reluctance, anyone who had access or knowledge of the room held it close.

The room itself would have been hard to describe even if one had a desire to speak of it. The walls where bathed in shadow and seemed to devour any source of light that drifted close. Still, for all the drama, history, and dark legends that surrounded the room (and they were legion) today's focus was on the occupants of the room. A gathering of the very highest level of Konoha's command structure. The Hokage's advisors, for all their status and prestige, were not welcome here. Danzo and Hiashi Hyuuga and all their village council drama were absent. No lurking representative from the Fire Daimyo hid in the corners. This was a gathering of the real movers and shakers of Konoha and Hatake Kakashi would have traded his Sharingan eye to have not been included in their number, even as a place filler.

To understand this gathering you have to understand Konoha's history, and the First Great Shinobi War. The first war happened when the villages were still new, some hadn't even formed yet. While it may have been the first war between villages it was fought in the style of the pre village wars, just written large. Teams were composed almost entirely of members from the same clans. It was horribly ineffective and drove wedges between the clans in the Konoha as the various clans accused others of shirking or seeking the best stations for themselves.

In an effort to eliminate the problem the First Hokage split the clan forces into mixed teams, and removed clan heads from the chain of command, instead forming his teams into ten companies, each nearly 1,000 strong. After the war, the Second Hokage refined the system, new companies were added and others dissolved but the system designed to force the various clans to work together remained in place over half a century later. Today's gathering consisted of the company captains, the Hokage's direct subordinates. In the faint light of the room their forms were all but totally obscured, and each left a fearsome silhouette.

"Can we get started?" Inuzuka Tsume, Jonin Captain of the 7th Company and the so called 'Mistress of the Hunt' grumbled from her position towards the back of the room.

"Hmph," Tsunade snorted "we may as well. Shikaku." The 5th fire shadow was easily the most visible member of the room, the white in her formal robes seeming to draw almost every bit of color in the room; everyone easily saw her hand gesture toward the Jonin Commander of the second company.

"We've all seen the reports," The Elder Nara said in a bland tone, "so I'll skip most of the details. We have two real problems. Casualties from the Invasion, and deployments. We lost three Jonin Captains who need replaced; and six hundred chunin, almost all of them from the second and third companies. We're going to have to pull chunin from other companies to fill the gaps."

"That could be difficult." Hyuuga Akisame, a famed philosophical gentle fist master, said in a neutral tone. There were two types of companies, deployed companies and specialist companies. Specialist companies were composed of ninja who had particular skill sets. The 1st Company was composed entirely of Anbu. The 2nd Company contained all the little odd positions around Konoha, the logistics shinobi, cryptanalysis, academy teachers, mission assignment, armory, sorcerers, etc. The 7th Company was filled with Reconnaissance types and sensors. The 9th Company had all the shinobi assigned to long term Espionage. The 10th, which Kakashi was representing, was composed entirely of Genin teams. The 12th, currently being represented by Shizune, was the Medical company.

The deployed companies existed to serve as buffers during the war, and to provide stable bases across the country. Akisame's company, the 4th, was based in a city called Lord's Crossing, and covered missions across the northern part of the country. The 5th Company was based in Fire Countries capital, to "support" the Fire Daimyo and cover the western part of the country. The 6th Company was located far away in the southeast and largely covered naval requests. The 3rd Company was often considered the dream placement for a shinobi, located in Konoha itself it tended to cover the east and was responsible for guarding Konoha itself. If the ranks of the third were to be restocked, most of the shinobi would have to come from other 'deployed' companies, none of which could really afford to lose the manpower.

"What about genin?" The voice that emerged was a woman's, young beautiful, it was a voice that promised pleasures unending, and Kakashi knew he'd be thinking of it when next he read from his book. Still it also freaked him out a little. The Anbu Commander, silver mask faintly visible even in the room's perpetual gloom, was a figure that was as androgynous as they come. From the hood, gloved hands, heavy coat, stance, build, you just weren't sure. Even more dubious was the voice which drastically changed each time the masked figure spoke. "Do we have any we could promote to fill the ranks." It was a man's voice this time, booming and friendly, with an accent from the land of Iron.

"A few," Kakashi said. "From talking to the team leaders I could only promote twenty or so at best. We do have a few chunin still attached to their old genin teams that could be moved. I hate to break up teams but it happens eventually anyway."

"We don't really need to get the 3rd back to full strength, just fill it out to passable for now." Shikaku said quickly cutting anyone else off from speaking. "If you give me the twenty genin, we can get by with another 300 or so chunin from elsewhere. That should give our new captain a core to work around for a bit."

"If you don't take the chunin, I'm not comfortable giving you the genin who haven't made grade yet." Kakashi said. He could feel everyone's eyes settle on him. Tsume broke the tension with a roaring laugh.

"Ha! He got you. Just break your kid off his team Nara, from what my boy said he did all right on his last mission without the girl anyhow." The elder Nara said nothing, but was saved by Jiraiya, legendary sannin and Jonin captain of the 9th.

"Before we talk about genin," The Toad Sage said, "what about the reserve? We've got a lot of retirees we could muster. Or missing-nins? I know at least a handful of runaway genin and chunin that could be brought back into the fold. Morino Idate, the Ibuki girl… we have options at least before we start hurling genin into the line."

"I think it's premature to discuss manpower without consulting whoever is going to be leading the 3rd Company, we should settle on a replacement before dealing with the rank and file." Senju Maya, by far the youngest of them and Jonin Captain of the 5th, said.

Every member of the meeting was a loyal dedicated shinobi of Konoha. Each thought they knew what the best solution was and pushed for it unrelentingly. The results, unsurprisingly, took forever to reach and left no one happy. The meeting took all night, broke for breakfast and quick negotiations behind closed doors, resumed with all parties refreshed with caffeine or sake, continued through lunch and finished with Kakashi feeling like he'd refought the third great shinobi war.

The final agreed upon conclusions were, in no particular order: Hatake Kakashi was not going to be promoted to Jonin Captain of the 10th company. Parts of the shinobi reserve (consisting of elderly shinobi, those retired for medical reasons, and members of clans who had gotten shinobi training but chose to pursue safer lines of work) would be mobilized and chosen by a lottery. Missing-nin genin and chunin would be hunted down and drafted back into the village or killed. The upcoming class of academy students would be graduated immediately to bolster the village's current forces. 500 total chunin would be transferred from the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th companies to return the 3rd to fighting strength. Jonin, special jonin, and a few hastily promoted chunin currently serving in the 2nd, 7th, and 12th would be assigned to mentor the mass of new genin. Nara Shikamaru could stay with Team 10. Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane would be restored to active service and assigned "as far away from me as possible" the Hokage had demanded. Uzumaki Naruto would be transferred to the 9th company. Uzuki Yugao would be promoted to Jonin Captain of the 3rd company. All current genin teams and their instructors would be transferred evenly between the 4th, 5th, and 6th to make up for the loss of chunin personnel. Shizune would be promoted to Jonin Captain of the 12th. A review of imprisoned shinobi would be taken to see if any could be rehabilitated into service. 10th Company would be temporarily disbanded for three years then re-established. 1st company was to begin retaliatory assaults on village of sound forces. Hatake Kakashi was immediately removed from Team 7 and placed in the 3rd Company to assist with the new formation. Team 10, unlike every other existing genin team, would be transferred to the 3rd company. It was also unanimously voted vending machines be added to the bottom floor of the Hokage Tower.

* * *

When she had been in the Academy Haruno Sakura was something of an optimist. Life had been pretty good to her. Well other than the schizophrenia and her oversized forehead. Four months in the field and two weeks on her own had taught her better. So when she reported in for a mission and was told that she'd been called to a special meeting at the academy that afternoon, she had absolutely no positive feelings whatsoever. Her neutral disposition dropped even farther when she realized how crowded the academy was.

_"Shit, there must be over a hundred genin and academy students here!"_ Inner Sakura complained. _"We're never going to find a seat."_ The academy classroom was filed to the brim. The seats were taken; people were leaning against desks, the wall, a pair of older genin had opened the windows and perched on the ledge. A few had given up on finding a spot and were milling about in the hallway. Sakura never the most intimidating person wasn't about to shove her way into the crowd to make space for herself so she resorted to an old fall back. She stood on her tip toes and looked for someone she knew.

Team 8 was huddled together down in front, surrounded by students and genin. Neji was out in the hall, too dignified to fight for a seat. He'd also probably be able to lip read the speaker anyway. Well… they did know each other… they'd never actually talked directly or anything. But she had stood around his vicinity sometimes… and he had watched her fight Ino to a draw once…

_"Yeah, I've got 500 ryo that says he couldn't pick you out of a lineup." _Inner Sakura said. Giving a sigh Sakura ended up standing at the far back of the room. She couldn't see the front at all.

"Hello everyone! If you could all quiet down we'll get started." Sakura recognized Iruka and imagined he was smiling and looking for his former students in the milling mass. She wasn't sure since she couldn't see him from the far, far, back of the room, behind a row of taller students. But, sometimes, she liked to pretend that someone was happy to see her.

"All right," Iruka said, "I know you're all surprised to be here and no one told most of you what was happening, so I'll be filling you in. We've suffered what non-ninja call a corporate restructuring. If you're in this room you're being transferred to one of the deployed companies." Bedlam and anarchy had a field day with the assembled genin. There was much yelling, shouts of dismay, denials, references about Iruka's lineage and how many dogs must be in it. Needless to say it took a lot of shouting to calm down the masses.

"Calm down! I'm not happy about this either!" Iruka shouted. "You've been sorted by team. So I'll read off the active teams now and let you all know where you're being sent. If you currently aren't on an active team, either because of the invasion or because you just got an early graduation just wait. We'll get all of you sorted as soon as we can. When you get home pack whatever you can't live without because you may not be back in Konoha for a few years. Team #1, you're going to…" Sakura mostly tuned Iruka out while she thought about this strange new direction her life was taking. She wasn't from a prominent clan or even a minor clan with generations of service. The odds had always been that she'd be shipped to one of the other bases. It wasn't that big a deal, and it would get her away from her parents! She'd have her own place. She'd be far, far, far away from Konoha's labyrinth sewer system.

Think of it, the capital city, the nobility, the grandeur! She'd be guarding important nobles, and protecting priceless national treasures and sites. Yeah Sakura could see herself in fancy kimonos, dining in fabulous restaurants, the possibilities were endless. Even better, if she heard right, team 8 would be going there. She wasn't really close to anyone on the team, but they had been classmates. They even knew her name, and talked to her sometimes!

Team 10 was off to Lord's Crossing, and it made Sakura think about serving in the place. It was supposed to be one of the biggest trading cities in the world, almost every merchant caravan going from east to west or north to south passed through it. A real nail biter; dangerous missions and front line duty if another war broke out but a chance to shop and live in one of the most lavish cities in the world. Team 10 would be all right serving there.

Greyfalls, her third option, was far less attractive then the first two. It was located in the far south east, the least populated part of Fire Country. It was also a port, and after the mission to Wave Country Sakura was done with ships, islands, and bridges. No her first choice of duty stations was defiantly the capital.

"Okay, that's all the active teams. For those of you without a team listen for your name. Team 83, Yoroi Akadō, Haruno Sakura, and Ami. You're assigned to the 6th Company in Greyfalls. Team 91..."

_"Son of a bitch."_

* * *

I wanted this chapter to be longer but I also wanted to post tonight. I compromised. If there's any typos or grammer mistakes please tell me. I don't have a Beta so I'm doing what I can but mistakes happen. Also- this character sheet is taken from Exalted, and I'll break it down bit by bit next chapter. (rule of thumb- 1= Academy student level, 2= Genin Level, 3= chunin, 4= Jonin, 5=High Jonin/ the exception is willpower which runs 1-10. Most ninja are in the 6-8 range in regards to willpower)

Name: Sakura Haruno

Age: 12

Element: Water

Equipment: Standard

Taijutsu Style: Academy

Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 1

Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2

Mental: Perception 2, Intelligence 3, Wits 2

Abilities:

Warrior: Archery, _Martial Arts 2_, Melee, Resistance, Thrown 2

Commander: Integrity, Performance 1, Presence, Survival 1, War 2

Support: Craft, Investigation 1, _Lore 3_, Medicine, Occult 1

_**Assassin:**_ _Athletics 1, Awareness 1, Dodge 1, Larceny 2, Stealth 2_

Spy: Bureaucracy 2, Linguistics 1, Ride, Sail, Socialize 1

Chakra: 2

Willpower: 5

Bloodline Bonus: 0

Chakra Reserves: 7

Chakra Pool: 18

Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 2, Valor 2


	4. Chapter 04 A Flat World

"_I expect you shall either die in war or of a vile disease." Danzo to the 4__th__ Hokage_

"_I suspect that depends on if I embrace your principles or your wife."- 4__th__ Hokage to Danzo _

Ch 04: A Flat World

It is a common misconception among the peasantry and the foolish that the world is round. It is not. Anyone with any schooling knows that the world is flat, and that it is the center of the universe. At the center of the world is the Elemental Pole of Earth, from whence all earth aspect chakra comes, above it is the world's most massive mountain. The Imperial Mountain (sometimes called Dragonmount or the Sage's Mountain) rises nearly to heaven itself; this mountain is the very axis of creation. Around the mountain is the land called the Elemental Nations (although it bore other names in past).

In the far north of the world is the Elemental Pole of Air, from whence all air aspect chakra comes, none have seen the farthest north for as one journey's northward the air grows colder, stronger, and fiercer. As far north as men have gone there is naught but ice, snow, and an endless blizzard.

In the south of the world is the Elemental Pole of Fire, from whence all fire aspect chakra comes. Legends claim that in the south lies another continent a place of burning wastelands, where volcanoes rage and nothing living can long dwell. They say that the farther south one goes the fiercer the eruptions, the thicker the smoke, and the hotter and drier the air.

In the lands to the west lies the Elemental Pole of Lightning, from whence all lightning aspect chakra comes. A place of never ending storms the ancient texts proclaim, where each moment hundreds of lightning bolts tear the land asunder.

In the endless east, far, far to the east is the Elemental Pole of Water, from whence all water aspect chakra comes. As one departs the shores of the Elemental Nations and begins to journey east, he would encounter hundreds upon hundreds of islands and archipelagoes. However as one continues eastward, the islands begin to become farther apart, each island a little farther away from the last. Eventually the islands stop and all that exists is endless ocean and an infinite horizon.

Weather, naturally, is determined by the elemental poles. Warm winds blow from the south, blizzards and cold from the north, rainstorms from the east, and thunderstorms from the west. Each part of the world receives at least some attention from the four poles, but each pole exerts the greatest influence in its own direction. Truly the Elemental Nations are blessed for they receive the attention of all the elements equally.

The result of this means that the Elemental Nations don't have seasons per say. In Konoha the temperature ranges from around 70 degrees to about 90 degrees based on the prevalent winds. This was the temperature. All the time. In snow country, the northernmost nation in the world, it hovered around zero degrees. All the time.

Haruno Sakura knew all of this of course. Who didn't? She was a bright girl and had studied hard in her classes, lecturing her on such elementary academic knowledge was like trying to walk Mighty Guy through a punch or teach Sharingan Kakashi an Academy Ninjutsu. The only person she could even think of who could possibly not be aware of these basic facts would be Naruto (and any unfortunate individuals who were forced to examine the world from Naruto's point of view). She knew that if she went north the temperature would steadily decrease. She knew that Grayfalls was a long way to the south of Konoha and substantially hotter. She didn't need her mother to lecture her on these very, very basic world facts. That didn't stop the older woman from doing it though.

"I just think you should pack clothes that cover more skin dear," her mother said, as the pair of them were packing Sakura's oversized backpack., "you don't want to get a sunburn."

"I'm more worried about the heat," Sakura said as she packed another pair of shorts. Normally she'd travel light on a mission but since she was basically moving away for… well she wasn't sure how long. Years? The rest of her career? Her life? Sakura planned to make sure she took anything that she could regret leaving.

"Well… still… I just worry." Her mother said voice full of passion. Sakura kept her eyes on getting everything into the overflowing backpack. The last thing she needed was for her mom to start crying again. Last nights hysterics had prevented Sakura from packing at all.

"I think this is everything Sakura said hefting the backpack. She frowned, it wasn't that heavy, she could lift it and walk with it without any problems. Running with it would be a nightmare though. A cross country march wouldn't be too much trouble.

Her plan of not looking at her mother failed as the woman began to wail about Sakura's imminent departure.

"Your father isn't even here to say goodbye!" The elder Haruno cried as she crushed her daughter in a hug. Sakura would have liked to see her dad before she left, she'd have settled being able to tell him she was being deployed clear across the fire country. Of course he, like almost every other shinobi was being run ragged with missions.

Haruno Kizashi had graduated the ninja academy at the age of 13 and gone on to serve as genin in the village. Unfortunately he'd stayed a genin for 24 years. In the wake of the invasion he'd finally been promoted. The whole family had been shocked. Her mother had fainted. Sakura had no idea where he was now, and the man would be in for an awkward surprise when he got back and found his daughter had been shipped out.

It took almost ten minutes to extract herself from her mother, make her final goodbyes, and begin the long walk to the gate. It was an… odd walk to the gate and Sakura wasn't sure how to describe it. She kept having little flashbacks as she passed familiar places. Her family eating at a restaurant. A younger Ino and Sakura chasing each other through the streets. It was…bittersweet perhaps? Pondering these pleasant yet somehow sad memories Sakura was paying far less attention to her whereabouts than she ought to have. She was completely unprepared when an elbow slammed into her stomach.

"Urk." Sakura hacked out as she stepped back, arms wrapped around her guts. Between gasps she glared at her attacker.

"What… was… that for?" Sakura stuttered out as she struggled to regain her breath. Her former classmate glared down.

"I barely hit you." Ami said. When Sakura had been younger it was Ami who'd given her the nickname 'forehead', Ami who'd been one of the most prominent of Sasuke's fangirls, Ami who'd just elbowed her so hard she'd almost lost breakfast all over the street, Ami who was now one of Sakura's teammates.

She was about Sakura's height with brown eyes and strangely cut dark purple hair. While most of her hair was short, not even reaching her shoulders, she had a long tress of hair on the left side that went down below her shoulders. She also wore an odd shirt, the base was a dark blue, but it had neon pink and red stripes covering the front. Instead of Sakura's overflowing backpack she carried a small duffel bag.

"That wasn't a nice way to say hello Ami." Sakura said flatly. Sakura wasn't the bravest person or the most confrontational. She wasn't a particularly dangerous fighter. But she'd survived, much, much more dangerous people than an old classmate.

"You were really out of it." Ami said. She wasn't the bravest girl in the world either but she may as well give up being a ninja if Haruno Sakura could stare her down. "C'mon," Ami said turning and walking away, "seriously I walked in front of you and stuck out my elbow, you walked right into it."

Red faced Sakura followed the purple haired girl. "Ami, your pack is really small. Do you want to go back? We may not be back in Konoha for a while." Sakura asked as she looked at Ami's bag.

"This is everything. I'm an orphan, remember." Ami said not breaking her stride. Sakura hadn't known that actually, they'd never had a pleasant two words to say to each other. It did explain why Sakura didn't know Ami's last name, she probably didn't have one. "On that note, Naruto asked me to say goodbye for him. He showed up on my doorstep with Jiraiya of the Sannin this morning. Jiraiya of the freaking Sannin."

"Why would he tell you that?" Sakura asked, "How would he even know to tell you that? We just found out we were teammates last night. Actually I didn't even know you were friends." Ami shrugged.

"I've no idea how he knew we were teammates. But since he showed up with a living legend I know what my guess is, and we're not friends we just live in the same building. Every orphan who goes to the academy lives in the building. How did you not know that? Do all the clan kids you hung out with seriously not know that? " Sakura hadn't known that. The only two of her classmates she really knew were Ino and Sasuke. Desperate not to feel like a total…well somebody who knew nothing about her classmates… she fired off the first question that popped into her head.

"Since you were both orphans I'm surprised you weren't friends." At that Ami actually turned an incredulous look to Sakura.

"Are you serious? Friends with that spoiled brat? Hell no." Ami said. "I mean I'd have played messenger for him even if Jiraiya wasn't there, but friends? Not a chance." Now Sakura was really confused.

"Wait, what?" Sakura asked, "How's Naruto spoiled? He lives alone in an apartment, he was always in trouble, shopkeepers hate him, and he's still asked to leave when he goes into some restaurants or shops!"

"Yeah, he lived in a giant apartment, all alone. I had to share my much smaller apartment with 3 other kids. He always got personal visits from Sandaime-sama, did you know that? The 3rd would sit in his room and read to him, he always bragged about it to the rest of us. Do you know how big his orphan stipend was? It was huge. Huuuge." Ami said stretching the word out. "Whenever he got in any kind of trouble the Hokage would just wave it away, we used to hear all about that to. He even got a special 'pass' on the genin exam last time. Drives me nuts sometimes all the stuff he gets, and how people always look after him. I don't hate him, but we aren't friends."

"Wow, I didn't know that." Sakura said, trying to ponder how to say she didn't think Naruto was spoiled without setting Ami off. Then she just decided to let it go and settled for not commenting.

Ami let out a 'hhhmmph', and the two didn't say anything else until they arrived at the gate.

"Man, it feels like the whole class is here." Ami said. Sakura nodded, there had to be fifty ninja hanging out by the gate. Most were genin but a few older ninja were waiting with the group. The only one Sakura recognized was a miserable looking Anko.

"Haruno Sakura and Ami?" A man's voice said. Ami and Sakura both turned around. He was tall, really tall. His face was covered by a dark blue mask. Not like Kakashi's mask, more like a bandit mask, a loose piece of cloth that covered his nose and mouth. His forehead protector was on bandana style, hiding his hair entirely. Even his eyes, the only part of him that should have been visible were covered by sunglasses. For a moment she was confused but then Sakura recalled where she recognized him from. He'd fought Sasuke in the chunin exam preliminary round.

"I'm glad I found you, I recognized your hair from the chunin exam preliminaries but I wasn't sure. I'm Yoroi Akado." He said with a pleasant nod.

Sakura and Ami were quick to introduce themselves. Sakura frowned a bit when she realized he was carrying a bag much closer in size to Ami's than his own.

"I've been told my name is hard to remember, so if you want you can just call me sempai." He said in a pleasant tone. Sakura only had vague recollections of his one sided fight with her missing-nin teamate, he'd been largely overshadowed by many of the other fighters that day and honestly she'd been worried far more about Sasuke.

"ah sempai, I've got a question." Ami said. When he nodded, she asked. "how old are you?" Rather than get angry he laughed. Not a deep laugh or anything. More a bark of a laughter.

"I wondered how long it would be till that came up. I'm 23." Sakura shrugged it off. What could she say? Her dad had been a genin until he was almost forty. Ami didn't take it so well.

"I didn't know there were genins that ol… I mean I thought they promoted us earlier…"

"Well," Sempai said scratching the back of his head. "It's complicated. If you get promoted in the exams or have a patron to press for your promotion, then you can get promoted pretty young. If you don't… well, sometimes it takes a while." He turned and looked at Sakura, "Actually, congratulations on your father's promotion. When we get to Grayfalls I'll be sure to send him a card. He's always looking out for us long time genin and he really helped me out a few times."

"Ah yes, thank you." Sakura said with a blush as Ami looked at her with wide eyes, "we were all really excited when we got the news." Sakura started to say something else but was cut off by a whistle from by the gates, causing all the side conversations to drop.

"Everyone, can you hear me?" A small man, hardly taller than Sakura or Ami, in a green long sleeved shirt with a black hat was standing atop the check in station by the gate. "Let me be the first to welcome you all to the 6th company. My name is Ma Kensei the 6th's Jonin Captain. There's plenty of important work to be done in the south and I'll be counting on all of you. Now it's a long way to Grayfalls but I've got a game of sorts to speed us all along. We've got seventeen genin teams here, and I'm hosting a race. First team there get a reward, last team… well I don't recommend finding out." The Captain said with a grin. "My lovely new assistant Anko here has maps for all of you, now" he said with a clap "Line up and you're free to start the moment you get a map!"

The line formed in a half second; thankfully Team 83 was one of the front teams. Sempai and Ami shared a look, and then together turned to look at Sakura's monstrosity of a backpack. So large it ran from her but to over her shoulders, so heavy she almost tripped when she jumped in line.

Fire country was the third largest country in the elemental nations. A massive chunk of territory by any stretch of the imagination, it stretched almost fifteen hundred miles from northwest to the southeast and averaged almost 700 hundred miles across. Grayfalls was located at the far south eastern edge of the country, a seven day run for standard a ninja team. Team 83 did not take seven days. Nor did they take eight days. They hadn't shown up on the ninth (it was on this day they realized the map was faked and they were off course).

* * *

The city of Grayfalls was a contradiction. It was almost two separate cities. It was an old city built millennia past by the dread Anathema. Its buildings were built of stone, stones that hadn't weathered at all since they were placed so far in the past. The feudal lord's palace was the size of a small town. The plazas and streets were made of the same eternal stone as the buildings and as perfectly smooth as they were on the day they were laid. It was a resort town for the nobility, with many of Fire countries elites owning estates or staying at inns designed for their comfort. The shops and traveling merchants traded in the most expensive goods brought from all across the world. Called Hightown by the natives, this part of the city looms over the rest.

Surrounding Hightown were the newer parts of the city called Lowtown by the populace. Buildings were built of wood, often single story and designed far more for function than beauty. The narrow streets were plain dirt, when they weren't outright mud. The business of the city was the sea and almost everyone was connected to it in someway. From the fishermen, to the harbormaster and his dockworkers, dozens of merchant houses, even the various shops and industries that catered to incoming ships. Ships from all across the south, from the thousands of island kingdoms, Wind Country, Water Country, Lightning Country, and others too numerous to list found there way to Grayfalls. From honest merchant ships, naval vessels, even outright pirate ships were frequent visitors. The folk of Lowtown knew how to entertain a crew, how to liquor them up, how to take their coin, and how to off load any cargo with no questions asked. When it comes down to it liberating sailors of their money was the job of a good port and Grayfalls was, arguably, the finest port of the south.

The last part of Grayfalls, the most important part to a leaf ninja, is known (only on official documents as "the Splendid and Just Bastion of Konohagakure no Sato's 6th Company") locally as the Gallows. Located about a mile off shore, the Gallows was a fortress built by the same architects who'd designed Konoha. A great wall surrounded the island, a vast featureless wall that rises nearly fifty out of the water. There is only one entrance to the Gallows, a small dock that lead into a great plaza the square that earned the Gallows its sinister nickname. Criminals and pirates were executed on the front steps (Admittedly one had to be a particularly heinous criminal or particularly stupid pirate to force Grayfalls lackluster legal system to take action).

At the edge of the plaza is a gate that leads into the fortress. In design it was similar to Konoha but on a far smaller scale. The Gallows was built to garrison a force of a thousand shinobi and its supporting families; it was not a city in any shape or form. Ninja who wanted down time visited Grayfalls. Despite its smaller size the Gallows had been reduced to almost a ghost town. The third shinobi war, Kyubi assault, Uchiha massacre, and sound invasion the 6th Companies manpower had been steadily drained to bolster other companies. Even with the arriving genin only about 300 ninja called the Gallows home.

Team 83 arrived at the Gallows as the sun rose ten full days after they'd left konoha. Thankfully they were not the last team to arrive. In fact they were in the top fifteen (15th if you must know).

"Team 83 reporting in." Sempai said. His mask and outfit were torn in a dozen places but he looked more or less undamaged. The limp was barely noticeable. Ami was sprawled on the steps, her breathing still ragged even after Sempai and Sakura had carried her across the water to the Gallows. Sakura stood ramrod straight, despite her exhaustion she found it far easier to stand without the pack she'd…misplaced… in the jungles that covered southern Fire Country.

"Took you long enough," the man at the desk said. The man looked back at his paperwork. "Your team have a place to stay?"

"No."

"Well you've got three choices; you can double back to town and get a room in town, go sleep in the barracks, or go ahead and pick an apartment." Sempai hesitated for a second. .

"Why would you do apartment rentals from the front desk?"

The guy at the check in desk shrugged. "Since fifty genin got transferred out here with no place to stay." Sempai scratched the back of his head.

"I guess that makes sense. What have you got?"

"I've got a ghost town. We've got tons of empty houses and apartments, or if you want we have a few places in town. The question is how much do you have?"

Sempai, turned to look at his teammates. "Well, what do you guys want to do? I think I'll pick up an apartment." Sempai wasn't a rich person. His family had pretty much cut him off years ago, but years of active duty had left him with some savings.

"Yeah," Ami said standing up, "I want my own place too." Ami may have been an orphan… actually untrue. Ami was technically an unacknowledged bastard. That is, she was an orphan but blood tests had identified that her father was an active duty shinobi. Her father didn't want to publically claim her or adopt her into his clan, so Ami lived with other orphan students in the apartment complex set aside for them. The other difference was in her orphan stipend. For legitimate orphans, they were paid a stipend from the village which varied slightly based on a number of factors. Ami was paid by her living parent, but he was a jerk and allocated her the bare minimum allowed by law. Naruto ate ramen because he adored it. Ami ate ramen because it was dirt cheap. Still having her own place had been a lifelong dream and she had some savings.

"uuhh" Sakura said. Sakura had spent her entire life living with her parents. She didn't buy groceries, pay rent, or anything like that. Her savings should have been massive compared to either of her peers. Unfortunately she had an addiction to shoes, dresses, hair ribbons, nail polish, shiny rocks, hair products, hand bags, designer kunai and scrolls… the list goes on. Her bank account read a fat zero. She had cash on hand… in her now lost giant backpack. "Well, I'll sleep in the barracks today."

Sempai nodded. "We should all meet back here tomorrow morning. I think we could use an afternoon off." He said.

* * *

The barracks were not on the main street. They weren't near the front gate. They were buried back in a near abandoned part of the fortress. At first glance the building looked abandoned. There was only one person even around it. A vagrant sleeping outside the front doors.

"Um excuse me," Sakura said to the slumbering man. His clothes could have been nice once, but years of neglect had left his shirt ragged and a faded grey color. His face had the 'I shaved a few days ago' look. He was so out of it that poking him with a stick didn't even nudge him.

"Sorry mister, I just need to get by." Sakura said as she stepped over him. Or tried to at least. His feet lashed out, not hard, got around her leg and somehow tripped her away from the door.

"Shit!" Sakura screeched as she crashed on to the street. The vagrant stood up, well slouched up.

"Who are you? Trying to break in to the fine barracks of our great 6th company?" He said. His slouched stance shifting as he stumbled forward.

"Uh, Haruno Sakura, nice to meet yo-" she scrambled backwards as his shuffle turned into a jab.

"What's wrong with you?" Sakura shouted, taking a fighting stance. "I just want a bed for a few days!" Sakura was not a taijutsu specialist; she wasn't fast enough, skilled enough, or tough enough to confidently wade into close combat without an advantage. But as she looked at her foes stumbling and haggard stance, she thought she could risk it. Stepping forward she launched into a basic attack combination.

The vagrant dropped to the ground, avoiding her entire offense, and he shot a kick upwards. Had anyone been watching the fight, they'd have called the kick slow and sloppy. If someone who knew Brad Wong, the master of the Drunken Fist, been watching they'd have admitted the kick was slow. Slow enough most genin should have been able to dodge it. However the observer would have admitted it was a well executed kick that was just part of Brad's bizarre style.

It was slow enough that Sakura managed to get her head out of the way. But she'd been shocked by the odd angle of the attack. It cost her a precious second before she started dodging and her nose didn't quite make it.

Sakura shouted and her hands flew to her nose as she was knocked down to the street. Blood leaked from her fingers as she glared at her attacker. "U rok by ose!"

"Ha! Who says I need a drink to win a fight." Brad said with a grin while he stood up. "But wow, kid, you really suck."

Sakura glared at him. Brad looked her up and down for a second.

"Yeah… let's get you a bunk kid." He said gesturing to the door. He looked her up and down again, an almost confused expression on his face. Like he was surprised by what he saw.

"You know, if you want, I'd be willing to teach you a little." He said.

"wat?" Sakura said, still holding her nose. Her eyes noticeably widened though. Nobody ever tried to teach her anything. Even Kakashi, her assigned teacher, only ever taught her techniques that he told the whole team. She'd even had to learn water walking from Sempai en-route to Grayfalls.

Brad took her one word, which had probably been a 'what' or 'why', as acceptance of his teaching her Brad launched into a spiel. "Yeah I can't really teach you my style, but I'll teach you its sister art. I can already tell you'll be a natural."

"Weally?"

"Wow you're pumped kid. Okay, well I suppose I can start telling you about it since you're going to be my apprentice and everything." He said as he led her into the run down barracks. "Uh, once upon a time, the Sage of Six Paths traveled the world with his two best friends. At the end…the end of something, I can't remember what, the sage created two martial art styles. One for each of his friends. To keep them safe or something. To his best bud he taught the drunken fist cause his buddy liked to get sloshed, and he needed a style where that wouldn't be a problem."

"ate wat?"

"I'm getting to it. The second style, the style I'll be teaching you, he made for his lady friend. The art of the Promiscuous Strumpet!"

"On ob a bick!" Sakura shouted (which probably wasn't a 'what' or a 'why'.)

* * *

Notes:

This chapter came out… blander than my usual chapters. A lot of explanations happened as I described the world a little bit, and had another section on Grayfalls the city most of this story will be operating out of. I know I promised to explain the stats I'm using here, but I decided to do that on my author page instead for ease of reference. In this section I want to explain two things today- Konoha Orphans, and the state of Konoha's military.

How big is Konoha; is a question I think every fanfic author has to at least casually address. If we go often canon, we have to assume the ninja academy graduates about 10 genin every year. Assuming each ninja serves about twenty years, some dying early and some serving thirty or forty. Konoha would have about 200 ninja. Even if we count Naruto's year as a fluke and assume they normally graduate about 25 a year, they only would have about 500 ninja.

In the Ten Thousand Failures universe, I assume that Konoha currently has a force of about 5,000 shinobi. This then means I have to struggle to explain why in Naruto's year only nine graduated. I have two answers-

Each deployed company, the 4th, 5th, and 6th, each maintain small schools that produce some genin every year.

The 4th Hokage was an odd man with a reputation for brilliance, and genius. However he was something of an odd genius, or perhaps mad scientist would be the better comparison. When he did something and it worked, it worked very, very well. When he failed it blew up spectacularly. In his term as Hokage he started a builddown period that the 3rd continued (because he assumed the 4th was having a genius moment when he began the plan) The academies went from graduating several hundred genin every year, to graduating only a handful. The methods for promotion to chunin were also reduced. In the Ten Thousand Failures universe, Tsunade removed most of these policies, meaning the next several academy classes will be much larger than previous ones.

Orphans and Bastards: The ability to use chakra is a hereditary trait, so shinobi ultimately come from two places, established clans and families, or the so called lost eggs (the eggs dropped outside the nest) people born to parents who can't use chakra. Sometimes the ability to use chakra skips a few generations so it isn't unheard of. But it is rare. Most children born 'out of the nest' have a ninja parent.

In the Country of Fire any child with the ability to use chakra is 'adopted' by Konoha and a blood test is performed in hopes of finding a rare bloodline. An existing clan or shinobi family without an heir often adopts these children (especially ifa rare bloodline is found). However if no one chooses to adopt it, it becomes a ward of the village, is given a stipend based on several different factors, and is sent to the ninja academy. (Such factors include things like bloodline, gender (boys get slightly more), academy grades, if the child is a Konoha orphan or was 'adopted' from afire nation family, etc)

Usually what they find is that a Konoha shinobi had a dalliance with a village girl, and now has a bastard child. At this point there are two options. The father can adopt the child into his clan, in which case the child is raised as a normal clan child and takes the clans surname. Or if publically admitting the child would be an embarrassment, he can deny the accusation, in which case he must provide the child's stipend until they graduate they academy. However this is kept secret and only a handful of senior village officials will know who the "orphan's" parent is. The child is often told when they graduate the Academy, as in such cases they are assumed to be responsible adults, and are requested not to contact their parent in public and to avoid creating a scene.

Also: Broke 10,000 words. 90,000+ to go!


	5. Chapter 5 Training

"_If you aren't willing to suffer you won't get anywhere as a ninja." –attributed: Orochimaru_

I don't like training scenes. They're often dull, make no sense, or worse are a chapter that's exactly the same as an in the Anime. Still I faced a quandary, I needed to explain a little how Sakura is getting stronger (well a little stronger anyway), I settled on a couple of shorts scenes that I hope you find amusing, and next chapter we'll actually move onto a mission or two.

_Konoha, Inoichi's Office_

"Hello Guy, how are you doing today?" Inoichi asked. Normally Inoichi liked to let his patients start the dialogue. Guy and Lee however, often required a little direction or they'd go off on wild tangents. As Guy launched into an enthusiastic greeting Inoichi directed him to the patients couch and took his own seat near the couch.

"That's good to hear Guy." Inoichi said, "Now have you done what I asked since our last session?"

"Hmm, I know you asked me to try and act in an un-heroic fashion and to try to do something un-youthful, but nothing came up this week. But to make up for it I promise to do fifty laps around Konoha on my hands!" Guy said.

"I'd rather you didn't." Inoichi said. "Actually, I think you should take a day or two off. No training at all." Guy looked horrified.

"I couldn't! What about my responsibilities! My Lee would never respect me again, my other students would falter in their training if they knew even I, Konoha's Green Beast Mighty Guy, could fail in pursuit of the fires of youth!"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure they'd like a day off. Except maybe Lee, but he's my next appointment anyhow and he really needs a break. I think it would be best if you both took a vacation." Inochi said rationally. Guy look scandalized.

"And let his Eternal Rivals Neji, Naruto, Tenchi, Kenichi, Yamanaka Eliot, Makota, the Mysterious Q, and even Ryu-Stalker-Sakura get ahead of him! Never, my Lee must show the world his hard work! Or what about Kakashi? My Eternal Rival would never waste a moment to get ahead of me in our never ending series of challenges!"

"Guy, calm down. First, I think Kakashi takes more days off than he spends training. Second, I think Lee may have…just a few to many rivals. Third, the only Tenchi I know in the village is like ten years older than Lee."

"Barely five, Tenchi just turned eighteen." Inoichi made a hasty scribble in his notebook, and made a promise to himself to talk to Lee about toning it down. Not that he'd had much progress with Guy over the years.

"Now I know we have this conversation every time you do your monthly check in, but let's talk about your Strong Fist Style." Inoichi said. Having had this conversation dozens of times Guy, very briefly, looked annoyed before throwing up a wide grin.

"What about my Strong Fist?"

"It's a Celestial Style correct?"

"Yes, the Strong Fist requires it's disciples to truly become heroes and champions! It instills the power of youth and demands hard work!" Guy proclaimed. "Only those truly willing to dedicate themselves night and day to hard work and youthful deeds can even begin the path of a disciple of the Strong Fist! Before I began my initiation, I was a useless slacker. I didn't want to work hard but I wanted everyone to respect me. I was even jealous of my eternal rival Kakashi and his success. But then as I was taught the beginnings of the style, I learned that through hard work and actions that shone of youth I could surpass even a natural genius like Kakashi."

"So learning the style changed you?"

"Yes! It made me a man filled with powerful youth!"

"But doesn't it also limit you?"

"What do you mean limit me?" Gai snapped. "The Strong Fist turns the weak and those lacking the power of youth into true heroes! It made me into the man I am!"

"But could you be anything else? You refuse to take days off, and couldn't perform a single un-heroic act over the course of a week?"

"I could have if I wanted to! But I choose to act only in a youthful fashion! Watch me! I'll go take a day off right now, and if I can't I'll challenge my rival to another match!" Gai said, springing to his feet and racing from the room.

"Wait our session just started!" Inoichi called uselessly after him. With a sigh, the counselor reached into his desk and withdrew a recording device.

"Session with Mighty Guy proved another failure. The influence of his Strong Fist Style is proving overwhelming. Like all Celestial Martial Arts styles the Strong Fist is based on emulating a piece of reality, and eventually subsumes the users into certain personality archetypes. As of yet my research has been unanimously conclusive. Users of Strong Fist, Snake, Drunken Fist, Celestial Monkey, Dreaming Pearl Courtesan, and Mantis Styles continue to become more and more like the subject their style emulates. My efforts to get these styles declared kinjutsu for their corrupting effect on the psyche have continually been denied by the village council. I can only hope that further observations will eventually lead to their being banned…"

* * *

_Grayfalls_

_Elemental Training Day 1_

Brad Wong was a lot of things but ultimately he was not a cruel person. He didn't enjoy suffering, he didn't enjoy hurting people, and he didn't enjoy causing pain. For much of Sakura's training this wasn't a problem. Promiscuous Strumpet wasn't a particularly harsh martial art. It relied heavily on flexibility and attuning one's chakra to the Way of the Promiscuous Strumpet. So largely his training heavily focused on basic stretches, actual technique work, and meditation. Unfortunately her elemental training was another matter. Thankfully he'd been able to find someone else to handle that part of her training.

"I have a question." Sakura said, looking at her teacher of the day.

"Fire away kiddo." Anko replied.

"Why are we training on the beach?"

"Excellent question! What do you know about elemental chakra?"

Sakura responded with the basic textbook answer. There are five types, more with bloodlines, more with combinations, etc, etc.

"Good," Anko drawled out, "now most people only bother learning what their element is so they know what elemental ninjutsu work best for them. Very few bother with learning raw elemental manipulation. Learning Fire and Lightning is fucking suicidal, Water is mostly pointless unless you're from somewhere with a lot of it, Earth takes forever, Air is really the only one that's safe, useful, and able to be learned quickly."

"So how do I train my element?" Sakura asked.

"You're in luck, your element is water and your actually assigned somewhere that there's enough of it to be useful."

"Wait, how do you know my element is water?"

Anko blinked. "It's in your academy file, they test every student."

"Oh, that makes sense," The pinkette said. "So how do we do the training?"

"Really easy actually," Anko said dropping her trenchcoat to the sand and revealing a most immodest bikini. "We're gonna wade about waist deep into the water, then I'll hold your head under while you try to use your chakra to breathe. After you drown, I drag you to the beach, resuscitate your ass, then we wade back out here and repeat." The snake summoner said with a grin.

"Until you run out of chakra or start breathing underwater. Now c'mon." Anko said as she strolled out into the surf, a groaning Sakura following.

* * *

_Grayfalls Promiscuous Strumpet Training Day 3_

"Today we're going to be working on your chakra." Brad said with a smile.

"So what do I do?" Sakura asked, "Climb a tree, waterwalk, balance something on my head?"

"Nope." The man said as he took a drink from his gourd. "Those only teach you how to control your chakra. We're going to do something tougher. We're going to force your chakra to change itself to suit your new style. It's really hard."

"How do I do that?"

"Well basically you meditate in a special stance. You have to stay completely still. Even then it only converts some of your chakra, and after you start moving you can only use the amount of chakra you converted. Later you learn the other forms and completely convert your chakra, and you naturally begin producing the chakra that you now need. If you're not…well compatible with the new chakra you turn to stone or mutate a little. But I know you are so no worries."

"Wait how do you know I won't turn to stone or mutate?"

Brad shrugged. "I do. Like my master knew I wouldn't. It's why I offered to train you. Someday you'll meet someone who you know you can pass your or my style off to." Sakura eyed him suspiciously but he appeared sincere.

"So how do I start?"

"The first pose is called Ascent to Desire."

"What?" Brad, calm and friendly fellow he was, simply assumed her flat tone and twitching eye were signs of confusion, not building feminine rage.

"As meditation poses go it's pretty easy." He said, "You kneel so that both knees are together, then you lay back until your ass is resting on your ankles. Your arms rest on the ground either behind your head or stretched out. Once you're down your knees spread a little bit, but your feet stay funder your rear. Easy."

"I'm not sprawling on the ground like that!" Sakura, her face a flaming red proclaimed. Brad looked amused.

"If you have trouble with this, you're gonna go nuts a few forms down when we get to Heaven's Widely Opened Gates."

* * *

_Elemental training day 12_

Sakura woke coughing and hacking as she gasped for air. Her hair was a mess, snot ran down her face, and her eyes where the kind of red and bloodshot you could only get by drowning repeatedly every day for nearly two weeks.

"Up and at'em kid." Anko said cheerfully. The woman's skin had tanned to nearly a bronze color. Sakura just looked like a nearly drowned lobster.

"Shit." Sakura coughed out. Anko struck a pose as Sakura struggled back to her feet.

"You know, I think I like it down here, my tan is fan-freaking-tastic, and I get to do water sports everyday!" Sakura just glared at the woman and stumbled back into the water.

* * *

_Promiscuous Strumpet Training day 17_

"Kick faster," Brad said as he watched his apprentice repeatedly kick into open air.

"If I go any faster I won't be able to hit the mark."

"If you keep kicking that slow aiming is pointless anyway. Screw aiming until you're faster, just kick wild." Nodding at her teacher's words of advice Sakura sped up on her kicks at the empty air.

"You've been doing standing stances all afternoon; use one of the prone stances."

Sakura's face went red and she looked around. Every Taijustu style had basic stances. You learned moves dealing with a wide range of positions, but the stances were your go to attack and defense positions. What made Drunken Fist and Promiscuous Strumpet unique was that they didn't find prone positions (that is, positions where the user is laying on the ground instead of standing) disadvantageous. Both styles had dozens of prone stances and a student of either style spent plenty of time on the ground. This was especially true for Promiscuous Strumpet, where students actually did most of their training on their backs.

"Can I at least put a blanket down?"

"Will you have a blanket in a fight?" Brad asked.

"Shit." Sakura groaned as she got into one of her many prone forms. (The Splitting Bamboo stance if you must know)

* * *

_Elemental Training day 33_

After the girl stopped struggling Anko yanked her out of the water and drug her to the shore. With a well practiced motion the former student of Orochimaru dropped the girl into the sand and began cpr. Perhaps from sheer repetition Sakura awoke almost instantly and began hacking water out of her lungs and gasping for air.

"I…hate…water…"

"That's the spirit! Back to it!" Sakura's demented elemental teacher said with far too much good cheer.

* * *

Notes:

From Natural to Supernatural, the 4 types of Martial Arts in 10,000 Failures

The martial arts are commonly practiced across the world. Most of these are what we call the mortal or natural styles. Karate, Aikido, Kung-Fu, Tai Kwando, etc. While these styles may have a spiritual component, they were designed to be used by people with no chakra. People who have access to chakra naturally become better with the styles than those without; but these styles simply aren't designed for the kinds of attacks chakra enhanced individuals can do, or the kind of defenses required for defending against such moves.

The next step are the so called Terrestrial Martial Arts. Far beyond the mortal arts, Terrestrial martial arts are designed around using chakra in combat. The Gentle Fist Style is the most famous Terrestrial Martial Art but far from the only one. Anything Goes, Amazon Wu-Shu, Seafaring Hero style, Falling Blossom style, Golden Janissary style etc.

Celestial Martial Arts are above the Terrestrial Arts. The difference between the two involves how chakra is used. Celestial Martial Arts require the user to force their chakra to emulate a certain aspect of reality. Be it a Youthful Hero, a drunk, a snake, etc. Not only does the physical aspect of the style show this emulation but to learn the style a shinobi has to force their chakra to embody the style's ideal form or function. Terrestrial arts can be learned by anyone capable of using chakra, celestial styles can only be learned by those willing to under go each celestial style's unique training methods.

The Sage Martial Arts were sadly lost with the Sage of Six Paths. While others have often claimed to be sages of some sort, or learned the so called "sage mode" those are in fact merely Celestial styles, Toad Style being no greater (spiritually speaking) than Snake or any of the others.

So for clarification: Celestial styles are better than Terrestrial styles, which are better than the mortal styles. The user of a Terrestrial Style can defeat the user of a Celestial style, but it often requires a gap in skill. The celestial styles simply have access to more powerful techniques. However the Terrestrial styles are much easier to teach, and lack the unique mental costs of the Celestial styles.

Kinematics: Thanks for the info on "sempai" I'll go back and see if I can fix that. Hate the guy's actual name though; I have the hardest time remembering it. Thanks for giving the story a try despite the weak writing, one of the reasons I actually started writing fanfiction was so I could improve it a little. Hopefully as I write more it'll start to improve.

10,000 Failings of Uzumaki Naruto: Not sure if anyone cares but I do have a side story to this fic about what happens to Naruto in this universe. That fic will remain a side story and will update far less often than this one, in 10,000 Failing's universe Haruno Sakura is our protagonist and will remain so.


	6. Team 83!

Chapter 6: Team 83!

"_A minute's success pays the failure of years."-Umino Iruka_

"_No it doesn't."- Hatake Kakashi_

_Elemental Training day 56_

Sakura gasped as Anko pulled her head out of the water.

"I did it!" The pink haired girl exclaimed. "I was breathing under water. It was incredible, the salt didn't even sting my eyes I could see everything."

"You really did it?" Anko asked, still holding the genin's head scant inches above the water.

"Yes, it was actually kind of weird ggglllaauggh." Sakura's sentence was cut in half as Anko rammed her head back under the water.

"Well now that you have the trick of it we better see how long you can do it for, try breathing under there for the next half hour or so." Not that Sakura could hear her instructions while she was being held under water but Anko felt it was necessary that they be said. Good manners it was to tell your student what you were inflicting on them.

* * *

_Grayfalls_

Scrape. Scrape.

The better you become as a ninja the better your missions get. That was the rule. Not an actual rule, but a tradition so ingrained it might as well be a written rule. Sure you started with chasing cats and painting fences and descending into sewers to hunt skaven, but as you started gaining skills you started getting the good missions. Whether you thought combat missions, assassinations, gate guarding, patrols, spying, bodyguard duty, were the best didn't matter. As your skills got better you started getting your pick of what you wanted to do. It was the unwritten rule. After two months of brutal, well, unique taijutsu training and finally mastering the first step of her elemental training Sakura expected a real mission. Nothing too fancy, but anything better than menial labor. She should have known her life didn't work that way.

Scrape. Scrape.

It wasn't an escort mission, it wasn't a bodyguard mission, and it wasn't even a nice boring patrol mission.

Scrape. Scrape.

Nope, once the higher ups decided that Sakura could breathe underwater for long periods of time there was only one assignment she was perfect for.

Scrape. Scrape.

Barnacle removal. For those unfamiliar with ships or ocean pests, barnacles are a sea going creature that attaches itself to the bottom of a ship's hull and then hardens growing a thick shell. These creatures significantly slow down ships and removing them from large ships is a hassle. The ship must be beached or drydocked and workers spend days or weeks hacking the things off.

Scrape. Scrape. Or you can find a genin who can breathe underwater and let them do it.

Scrape…Finished!

Feeling an unfamiliar, almost exotic, rise in her morale Sakura swam for the docks at nearly light speed. Well… at a double paced breaststroke speed anyway. Pulling herself out of the water she made a beeline for the harbormaster.

"All right, I'm finished." She told the man.

"Oh amazing! How did you do so many ships so fast? You ninja are absolutely incredible!" The little man said with a clap.

"Wait what? I only did the one ship, the _Drake_." Sakura said looking confused. The man looked equally uncertain.

"Why would you do only one? We hired you to do the Drakes."

"Right," Sakura said with a nod, "and I asked around that's the only ship named _Drake_ in the Harbor." She pointed to the ship she'd just cleared. Tentatively the little man nodded back.

"Right, that's the _Drake_. But it's not the only Drake in the harbor; we have four Drake class ships, the _Drake_, _Good Hope_, _Daimyo Alfred, _and the _Leviathan_. We paid you to get the barnacles off all of them.

Now Sakura was a bright girl, quite intelligent really. Especially compared to most of her peers, barring the never sufficiently damned Shikamaru, but like all ninja her education was very narrow. So while anyone with any familiarity, experience, or even slight education on naval matters would immediately realize her mistake, Sakura did not.

"Drake class? What does that mean?"

"…well it means they're ships all built with the same design. So if you look," The man said pointing back out to the harbor. "You can see the other three easily because they look almost identical."

"…Son of a bitch."

_D-Rank Mission- Barnacle Scrapping ¼ Complete!_

* * *

_Grayfalls_

If there is a single law in the universe, it's that the wheels of bureaucracy grind ever onward with a certain unstoppable inevitability. Even during the reign of Senju Tsunade, where even simple and routine paperwork sometimes took weeks or months to roll through her office. Unusual forms often seemed to get lost forever, in some cases particular requests would have to be filled multiple times before getting the required response weeks after they were needed. But even despite Tsunade's best efforts to avoid her administrative duties, eventually, even the most…diligently avoided pieces of paper would finally get filled.

Such is the case for one particular mission currently passed from Konoha to the Grayfalls mission assignment office and on to team 83. Over half a year ago, the Jonin Captains and Hokage had met and decided that certain runaway ninja were to be re-invited back into the fold. None of the serious missing-nins of course. Konoha would have to be reduced to a giant crater before Tsunade would offer the likes of Uchiha Itachi a pardon, and she couldn't even conceive ever extending Orochimaru one. But others she was willing to be far more malleable on. Genin and young chunin often ran away from home for odd reasons. The shame of failure, looking to see the world, love, seeking training, trying to quit being a ninja, there were plenty of silly or even valid reasons to ditch town. Even Uchiha Sasuke for all the drama of his flight to Oto was really only guilty of running away and consorting with an enemy of Konoha. The first charge was an easy fix and the second could be forgiven if he gave up any good information about Orochimaru and his forces. Not to mention that running away to become strong enough to kill an S-rank Ninja was far better than the reasons most people left. Tsunade herself had technically been a missing ninja, even if Sarutobi kept losing the paperwork that would get her officially declared one, for nearly ten years with no better reason than angst. In fact while Konoha currently only had a roster of about 5,000 active ninja (5,742 now that a class of genin had been graduated early, and parts of the reserve had activated) it had about 300 missing ninja, most of them guilty of no other crime than simply running away. (Which incidentally is counted as treason and is in fact punishable by death) Tsunade was more than willing to invite these missing children back into the fold. By force if she had to.

Morino Idate was one such missing-nin. His location had been on record before Tsunade even took office but since he lacked a bloodline and the reason he abandoned Konoha was hardly his fault, the powers that be had simply decided to leave him alone. But now that that the village desperately needed every ninja it could get its hands on they couldn't afford to leave him slumming as a third rate gangster.

"So, that's the mission Ami." Yoroi Akado said full of good cheer. As first C-rank missions for a team went this was one of the best. Not only did it almost guarantee combat with a ninja, a mediocre ninja, there would probably be little chance of unsuspected outside involvement. Always a risk on C-ranks was running into a ninja that was leagues above your level. It didn't happen often, but sometimes clients lied, sometimes they didn't know all the facts, or sometimes you just got really unlucky. The worst he'd ever heard was a genin team with a Yamanaka on it doing a mission in Earth country who'd run into their Jinchuriki Han. Talk about bad luck. Total party wipe out.

"Great. When do we leave?" The girl asked. Dressed head to toe in a formal kimono, with white make up caked over her face and a pile of books perched precariously on her head, Ami looked about as miserable as a twelve year old could be.

"That's not how you say that young lady!" A stern voice emerged from the back room. Akado glanced over his teammates head to see if he could see her teacher, but alas she must have been in another of the rooms. Ami flinched, and then a strained smile stretched across her face.

"Thank you kind sir inviting me on your expedition. If it pleases you I'll be most content to accompany."

"That's…very kind of you… We'll leave tomorrow morning, I still have to track Sakura down, she's supposed to be somewhere on the docks. Anyhow, take care." Akado said giving a friendly wave as he stepped away from the girl's apartment.

"Right, see you- I mean, thank you Yaroi-san I'll wait with breathless anticipation." She said.

"You have to bow!" The voice shouted from inside the house. Grimacing, the purple haired girl gave a very slight bow, books wobbling dangerously.

"Lower!" Ami dipped down another inch.

"Lower than that girl! And you'd better not be holding those books with chakra; they'd better stay perched on your head through sheer feminine grace!" Another inch.

"Lower! And I can see the chakra anchoring your feet to the floor!"

"He's not even here anymore I'm bowing to an empty street!"

"Then you're going to bow right! Lower!" And Ami tried dropping another inch, and the girl, wearing a kimono that cost more than most genin make in a year, tumbled out, face first into the unpaved and muddy street.

* * *

_Still Grayfalls_

Haruno Sakura trudged back home covered in saltwater, algae, and bits of barnacle. Her red and pink dress ruined beyond compare. Her sandals a lost cause, after two months of seawater exposure they were barely holding together. Could today possibly get any worse?

"Hey Sakura!" Akado shouted. Sakura gave a mental groan, not that she disliked him, she just really didn't want to talk right now.

"Hey." She said, not stopping her weary march back to her barracks. Akado didn't seem to mind and fell into step with her. No stranger to teammates who didn't want to talk to him, he immediately jumped into the bare minimum explanation required.

"We've got a mission tomorrow. You want the details now or in the morning?"

"Morning." Sakura grunted. With a nod Akado took off. Finally rid of her teammate Sakura continued her weary march back to her uncomfortable cot in the barracks. She planned to get home, sleep for a solid eight hours, then get back to the harbor to finish scrubbing barnacles of the last damn boat, then maybe a relaxing lunch, and possibly some training. Yeah that wouldn't be so…wait.

"Wait Akado!" Sakura whirled around and raced back over the last few streets looking for her him. "Oh no this isn't happening. Akado I need you! Get back here!" Eyes darting wildly Sakura desperately tried to find any sign of her erstwhile teammate. She blitzed across three different neighborhoods and ransacked a half dozen eating establishments, but he wasn't in any of them.

…If she couldn't find Akado to move back the mission time… okay…the only solution would be that she'd have to finish the last ship tonight, before they departed tomorrow. No big deal it only took four hours per ship…

"Son of a bitch!"

* * *

_Notes:_

This chapter is actually supposed to be much longer as I was going to add the mission on to it. But well, I'm not really happy with it yet, and I want to get something posted. I'm also distracted by the release of Arrow on Netflix, and a hard return to my star wars addiction which may see a story from me on . I plan to hopefully have the mission up in the next two weeks.

This chapter we got a glimpse of Ami's training, which she'll discuss with us as the story goes on. We also saw some more of Sakura's suffering and embarrassment which is why I'm writing this in the first place

6 months later-

Where are they now? A look at where the Konoha 9, Sasuke, Naruto, Sand Trio are!

Kiba- genin, in the Imperial City

Shino- still a genin, in the Imperial City

Hinata- still a genin, in the Imperial City

Lee- Chunin, promoted in the Suna exam, in Lord's Crossing

Neji- Chunin, promoted in the Suna exam, in Lord's Crossing

Tenten- genin, in Lord's Crossing

Choji- genin, in Lord's Crossing

Ino- genin, in Lord's Crossing

Shikamaru- doing as little as possible

Naruto- genin, presumably training with Jiraiya; this point marks the beginning of 10,000 Failings of Uzumaki Naruto

Sasuke- Chunin, promoted in the Kumo Chunin exam

Gaara- Chunin, promoted in the Suna Exam, training in the desert

Temari- Genin, currently in Suna

Puppet guy (Kankuro for the win) - Chunin, promoted in the Suna Exam

Questions, comments, caught a mistake on my part, let me know! – Admiral Saris


End file.
